BadBadNotGood Download

Those interested in hearing some great jazz which came out this year should go download the new BadBadNotGood which is available free through their website. The album came out earlier this year and has not received the attention it deserves. Give it a listen and see what you think. http://badbadnotgood.com/

Top 10 Overlooked Albums of 2012

10. Pontiak - Echo Ono 9. Loma Prieta - I.V. 8. Mirrorring - Foreign Body 7. Damien Jurado - Maraqopa 6. Whirr - Distressor 5. Blondes - Blondes 4. Lightships - Electric Cables 3. Lower Dens - Nootropics 2. BadBadNotGood - BBNG 2 1. Portico Quartet - Portico Quartet

Top 10 Overrated Albums of 2012

10. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball 9. Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin' 8. The Lumineers - The Lumineers 7. Yeasayer - Fragrant World 6. Best Coast - The Only Place 5. Muse - The 2nd Law 4. Passion Pit - Gossamer 3. Fun - Some Nights 2. Lana Del Rey - Born to Die 1. Father John Misty - Fear Fun

Top 10 Metal Albums of 2012

10. Black Breath - Sentenced to Life 9. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind 8. Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction 7. Asphyx - Deathhammer 6. Grave - Endless Procession of Souls 5. Loma Prieta - I.V. 4. Baroness - Yellow & Green 3. Gojira - L'enfant Sauvage 2. Pig Destroyer - Book Burner 1. High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

Top 10 Electronic Albums of 2012

10. Holy Other - Held 9. Burial - Kindred [EP] 8. Cooly G - Playin' Me 7. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful 6. Daphni - Jaiolong 5. Lone - Galaxy Garden 4. Delta Funktionen - Traces 3. Robert Hood - Motor: Nighttime World 3 2. John Talabot Fin 1. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems

Top 10 MN Local Albums of 2012

10. The Bad Plus - Made Possible 9. Greg Grease - Cornbread, Pearl & G 8. Buffalo Moon - Selva Surreal 7. Magic Castles - Magic Castles 6. Leisure Birds - Globe Master 5. Flavor Crystals - Three 4. Prissy Clerks - Bruise or Be Bruised 3. Gay Witch Abortion - Opportunistic Smokescreen Behavior 2. Pony Trash - Pony Trash [EP] 1. Food Pyramid & Roy Orb D.M.T. - Arp Navigators

Top 50 Albums of 2012

I took a little time and came up with my top 50 albums of 2012. I will also be posting  up a few different top ten lists as well including: local, metal, electronic, overrated, and overlooked.

50. Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber
49. Laurel Halo - Quarantine
48. Russian Circles - Empros
47. Halasan Bazaar - How To Ever Be Happy
46. Clams Casino - Instrumental Mixtape 2
45. Leisure Birds - Globe Master
44. Twin Cities Funk & Soul: Lost Grooves from Minneapolis/St. Paul 1964-1979 - Various Artists (Secret Stash)
43. Flavor Crystals - Three
42. Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
41. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
40. Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair
39. Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun
38. Holy Other - Held
37. Burial - Kindred [EP]
36. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Aufheben
35. Magic Castles - Magic Castles
34. Tamaryn - Tender New Signs
33. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful
32. Grimes - Visions
31. Camera - Radiate
30. Frkwys Vol. 9 Icon Give Thank- Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, and the Congos
29. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
28. Tame Impala - Lonerism
27. Daphni - Jiaolong
26. Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool
25. Imikuzushi - Keiji Haino, Jim O-Rourke, Oren Ambarchi
24. Portico Quartet - Portico Quartet
23. Lone - Galaxy Garden
22. Disappears - Pre Language
21. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
20. Grizzly Bear  - Shields
19. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
18. Liars - WIXIW
17. The Men - Open Your Heart
16. Food Pyramid & Roy Orb D.M.T. - Arp Navigators
15. Mac Demarco - 2
14. Wild Nothing - Nocturne
13. Delta Funktionen - Traces
12. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
11. Robert Hood - Motor: Nighttime World 3
10. Goat - World Music
9. John Talabot - Fin
8. Can - Lost Tapes
7. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
6. Swans - The Seer
5. Tara King Theory - Uncolored Past Part 1 &2
4. Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
3. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
2. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
1. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems

Tonight I want to leave my followers with a nice new treat. Andy Stott recently released a new record, Luxury Problems, 2 weeks ago on the 6th. I found the entire record on youtube and wanted to post it so everyone can get a listen. I highly recommend this electronic record. Check it out!

Crazy WK

If you have not previously heard of Andrew WK, he is a crazy party rocker with a pizza guitar (not in video). He had a tour where he was injured half through the tour and decided to continue to play his shows despite his injuries. I must say, it never gets old watching. This dude is an entertainer whether you like him or not. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.

New track from Gerry Reed

Sorry for the lack of posts.....

I want to first start off by apologizing to those of you who are trying to follow my blog. I have been incredibly busy with everything going on in my life (student teaching, working at the record shop, spending time with significant other) so I have not been putting anything up like I had intended. My schedule will free up here on Dec. 19th as I will graduate from school and be looking for work. I do plan on posting stuff daily when I can afford to build the time into my schedule. Until then however, posts will be somewhat sporadic. I will still try to post as much as possible, even if its just videos with no description. Be sure to check occasionally for new posts or look for notifications. For right now, here are some awesome videos I have recently found. A Full live electronic show with Andy Stott, a rap crew of jokers, Black Sabbath sounding San Fran. band, and two awesome Jazz Jams. Enjoy.

Bill Orcutt - Star Spangled Banner

I stumbled upon this video and being it was election season thought it was appropriate to post. This is a great interpretation of the star spangled banner which I hope you all enjoy as much as I did listening.

Grimes tonight

So I am going to Grimes tonight at the Varsity and wanted to post a nice little live performance from here in Seattle at KEXP. I will hopefully be posting a review of the show soon, as well as reviews of concerts I was at last week (Com Truise, Dinosaur Jr., and the XX). Hope you enjoy the video and within the next week I will post a review of the four shows so stay posted for that.

Saturday Night Tune

This tune is hitting the spot for me this evening and hope it does the same for you. Enjoy. 

New bands to check out

There has been a lot of good music to come out over the last few weeks here and I wanted to post a bunch of new records to check out. I want to mention that because there is such a large amount of videos I'm posting that there will not be descriptions for the songs as it would take waaaaaaay too much time for me to do that. The only thing I will say is that there is a large range of music from, electronic to metal to singer/songwritters, providing just about something for anybody. I would treat this as a fall mix and listen to all of them to know what is new in the music world and possible even broaden your music horizons. Hope every enjoys. Feel free to add any other good recent releases in the comments area below.

 

GSYBE is back!!!!!!!

Looking at my facebook homepage tonight I happened to come across an album stream of the new Godspeed You! Black Emperor record. Yeah, that's right. A new Godspeed record!!!!! The first record to be released in a decade! The title of the record is Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! and has already been preorded in such high demand that Constellation has discontinued all preorders until the actual record release date next week, Tuesday October 16th.
 It is being streamed on the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/oct/08/godspeed-you-black-emperor-stream?fb=native. If you are a fan of their music, you will fall in love with the new one just as quickly as you did with the others. The record consists of four new tracks; two twenty minute tracks and two six minute tracks. At time when political tension is still high Godspeed uses the current state of politics to influence its sound through its strongly emotional sound and edited sound bites we are used to hearing. The builds, create chilling melodies which chip away at its dynamic sound. The songs are multi-layered with heavy violin riffs, sharp guitar lines, distorted guitar notes, and much more that all pieces together so beautifully like they always do. This record is a strong record that will fit in perfectly with the rest of the discography. Overall, the record is another great Godspeed You! Black Emperor piece that is worth adding to the collection.

Don't know what to title this one

Just wanted to share a song that is hitting the spot for me today. This record never gets old for me. Enjoy it like I am on this lovely fall day. Peace.

Metal Monday

Ok, so I just came up with the idea of having a metal monday for my blog for the metal heads out there. For whatever reason monday just seems to be a good day to listen to metal. Thoughts? PLEASE LET ME KNOW GUYS!!!

Well regardless of whether metal monday will become a weekly installment, today is going to be metal monday cause I feel like it. Today's tune is one I've listened to for awhile now and always revisit when I'm in mood for some good metal. It's by a hardcore band called As Blood Runs Black and has one of the best double kick lines I've heard. Check it out. Even if you hate metal, you can still appreciate the talent within metal, you just have to listen!

2 New Music Videos

I just stumbled upon this video on XCLR8R and thought it was worth sharing with everybody. Lorn is a Milwaukee based producer, so not far from home and has created a music video that fits nicely along with the single the video is for. Check it out cause whether you dig the tunes or not, it goes well together and is worth seeing/hearing at least once.

Another video I happened to come across was this lovely Rone - Parade music video which has a bunch of shots chopped and put together very nicely. The tune is great and the music video is amazing. This video is even more so than the Lone worth checking out and once you enjoy it you will understand why.

Haven't posted in awhile.....

So I will begin by saying, I apologize to those waiting for a new post. I began student teaching within the past couple of weeks which takes up a lot of my time and if I'm not busy with that, I'm usually out and about. I will try and be better about posting stuff and force myself to at least post a quick little video or something at least!

I'm going to start this post by highlighting a band my good friend Timp turned me onto called Part Mammal. These guys are a local group which is fairly new to the scene as they only began performing live back in 2011. This has been one of my local music spotlight bands this year. They have a indie rock sound with a little distortion and some lo fi sounding effects but for the most part, your hazy indie rock sounding band. It reminds me a lot of deerhunter to be completely honest so anyway who is a fan of those guys, will dig these dudes. I haven't had a chance to catch their live act yet although I can only imagine it is great like the record being this group has such a dynamic sound that engages you. I just noticed they are playing two shows coming up, one this Thursday, Sept. 13th at the Hexagon and the other on Saturday, Sept. 29th at the 331 Club. Regardless of whether you are trying to catch this group or not, visit their bandcamp and give them a listen. The record is also on spotify. http://music.partmammal.com/music

The next and final thing I want to bring to people's attention in this post is some great recent releases. Now that things are getting in the swing of Fall records are starting to be dropped like crazy. A few records worth checking out if you have not include:
          Swans - The Seer
          Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
          Mono - For My Parents
          Mount Eerie - Ocean Floor
          Matthew Dear - Beams
          Four Tet - Pink
          Wild Nothing - Nocturne
          Cat Power -Sun
          Holy Other - Held
          Animal Collective - Centipede Hz
          Deerhoof - Breakup Song
          Stars - The North
          The Fresh & Onlys - Long Slow Dance
          Leisure Birds (Local) - Globe Master
          MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds
          Bob Dylan - Tempest
          Propaganhi - Failed States
          Camera - Radiate!

So there you have it, that should hold some over until I post next. I was at the Amon Tobin/Holy Other show last week, and I will be at the Daredevil Christopher Wright show tomorrow night so I will soon be posting two concert reviews when I get a chance. Until then, keep listening and enjoying the grooves.

Top Ten Albums of the Year So Far (Cont'd)

6. Air - Le Voyage Dans La Lune
                    Soundtrack of the year no question. Air has not released a record since the huge disappointment, Love 2 in 2009. For the most part, the French duo has always been on top of their game creating some great mellow electronica. After being so turned off by their last release I was somewhat skeptical but optimistic that their new record would be another spectacular Air release and especially being it was written to a remastered version of one of the most monumental films ever created. Sure enough, Air is back and sounding better than ever. It is exactly what one would have hoped for and so much more. The sound fits so perfectly along with the newly remastered film as well as shows how Air has kept their same style while progressing within their sound to new regions. People have claimed this record to be better than their incredible debut album, Moon Safari which need less to say is a tough reach, but honestly, these people might be right. This record is easily worth the wait and makes me fall in love with the band I have loved for awhile all over again and frankly, it was much needed. 

7. Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras & The Congos - FRKWYS Vol. 9
                    RVNG is having a pretty good year to say the least with this release being one at the top of their list. The FRKWYS collections are great experimental collaborations that have provided artists with a great outlet to meet different artists and create a new sound in its entirety. The latest edition in the series featuring electronic artist Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras working together with legendary dub band, the Congos is nothing short of amazing. The sound that is created from this collaboration which was recorded in 2 days in Jamaica is so innovative. Both music styles are integrated to meld such a wonderfully experimental dub sound that is so pleasantly surprising it will keep you coming back for more throughout the year. It is such an intriguing listen with so much dynamic that this record should be a part of any avid listeners collection. Its a beautifully weird record that most record collectors should seek for their personal collection.

8. Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
                    Anyone a Microphones fan? Mount Eerie is Phil Elverum who is more notably known for his work as the Microphones. Clear Moon came out this spring as the first part of a two part installment to be released this year. Clear Moon is a dark, spacey, droney, distorted, mellow, atmospheric sounding record which is filled with so much to listen to. There are so many effects with transitions being carried out so well along the beautifully created noisy record. This record carries a charmingly morose sound throughout its entirety and I know it does not sound appealing but their is something unique about this record that will make you fall in love with it. This record is charming like fog on a lake early in the morning of a gloomy day. Don't pass judgement due to its unattractive appeal but rather listen and fall absolutely in love with this record like I have. I am sure you will.

9. Dirty Three - Toward the Lower Sun
                    Ditry Three is back after 7 years and sounding just as good as ever. Warren Ellis is back after the recent departure of the Nick Cave Grinderman project and thankfully so if we can see some other great releases; not to say I'm not bummed about the recent break up of such a great sounding group. Dirty Three is beautifully chaotic creating an intensely formulated post-rock jazz style which is for anyone willing to give it a listen. The talent is so brutally raw and crazed that one listening to this record at night on a pair of headphones alone can't help but overcome with its brilliance. This record may not be for everyone and I can see that based off of its style but if you can dig it, you will totally understand where I am coming from in being so in love with this record. By all means this record is the one record in my top ten that is probably not for everyone but it is still brilliant and worthy of recognition in my opinion. Love it or hate it, it makes my top ten so far and will be a record I will love for many years to come.

10. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
                    Let me start of by saying if you are an Andrew Bird fan and have not listened to this record, you are probably missing out on his best piece yet. This record truly shows how this breathtaking artist has progressed throughout his career and continued to create music that reaches new levels. The loops that he creates whistling, plucking his violin, playing violin lines all building on top of one another are almost unfathomable. He truly is a talented musician fine tuning his niche into beautifully crafted music for just about any music lover out there. Not only is Andrew Bird full of talent in it of himself but so is the rest of his band which includes the ever so uniquely skilled Martin Dosh on drums to list one. This record reaches new areas within Andrew Bird's realm and creates catchy hooks which are layered with so many sounds and elements throughout the whole record. A very noteworthy record for the end of the top ten so far list.

                   

Top Ten Albums of the Year So Far

Although the year had a slow start, there have been some great albums released this year. I figured I would reflect a little on what has been released so far and take a little time to highlight some of my favorites. Due to a time crunch, this first post will have the first five, with the second five coming as soon as I can find some time to throw up another post.

1. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse

                    Ty Segall Band's Slaughterhouse is a loud, noisy, lo-fi filled quick record. This is probably my bias coming through as this sound is right up my alley for interest, but this record feels like he has reached his best sound yet. It is the same Ty Segall but a louder, heavier side that has not quite been seen in his records as a whole. Slaughterhouse a perfect little face-melter that deserves to be played a maximum volume every listen and to be honest, its hard not to. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXONGchVtc

2. Liars - WIXIW

                    Liars sixth release WIXIW was a record which I had no expectations for as this unfortunately is my first encounter with this band. I have managed to let Liars slide through my radar knowing who they are, but never taking the time to finally sit down and listen. Well, the wait was worth it because this record is solid front to back. It by all means is not a singles record which from my understanding is to be expected from Liars but it is a great record fitting well together as a whole. The album carries a dark, dance, layer filled sound throughout its entirety. The progression of this band from my little understanding is also the move in a great direction with the band developing a new sound but still staying in the realm of previous works with the Liars feel. This record has a unique sound that I can't get enough of and I will keep returning to for quite some time. 

3. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory

                    I am going to start out by saying this is one of the most overlooked records I have seen this year. Most people I have talked to have not heard this record and frankly, they should. It is a great alternative, lo-fi sounding record full of energy. The record starts off with a bitter morose sound and picks up pace as the tune progresses building energy. Immediately following it is launched into the fast paced, long jam  Wasted Days and continues on a similar path until the end. This record was one that I initially was not blown away with but I found the songs coming into my mind a lot and I have revisited this record this year probably more than any other album. 

  

4. Can - Lost Tapes [Box Set]

                    What can be said about Can that has not already been said before? If you don't know who I am talking about, then you need to do some digging in the catalog and spend some time with this old Krautrock band. This is the first time in quite some time needless to say that unreleased Can material has been released. This release is for any Can fan out there. It is full of new unheard material and truly encompasses Can's sound with great avant-garde, experimental, psychedelic sound full of epic jams, classic Can avant-garde tunes, story telling tunes, and live tracks. This box set will make any Can fan smile.

5. Grimes - Oblivion

                    Grimes is a young Canada pop music artist who is ripping up the scene, at least according to Pitchfork but as most know, they tend to have their favorites and over-hype some artists similar to the Current effect experienced here in the Twin Cities. Anyway.....the point is, the are right to follow her because the music she has been releasing is nothing short of amazing considering all that she does. She writes her own music, records it in garage band with surprising great quality, does her own artwork, shoots her own music videos, choreographs all her videos, and has released 3 buzzed about records in 2 years. Her most recent release Oblivion was a record I was not impressed with at first but the more and more I listened to this record the more I feel in love with it and the louder it went while I listened. This is by far my Pop music record of the year. She has a way of sucking you in with all the different layers she uses to create catchy pop songs that are so intriguing. One day this record will just pop into your head and I can tell you it will stay there for awhile. Don't judge this record on one listen, give it a few listens and I can almost guarantee you will fall in love with it the same way I did. 

Recent Dig

I have been digging the new Icky Blossoms record lately which was released by Saddle Creek. It is a good synth-pop driven record which continues to stick with me. The record has sold almost every time I have played it at work and rightfully so. Some tracks are better than others but there are some stand out tracks to keep one revisiting songs for awhile. Here is a track off of the new record which I can't seem to get out of my head.